Chapter 109 – W-Well! A Trifle Like This Is Nothing At All, Once I’m Involved!

The scene: Seldia's autonomous zone, Milea's lab within the Syn-Fibra offices.

Letaria, Grain, and Milea -- the lead engineer herself -- had all gathered together, the operation and follow-up investigation both safely concluded.

"-- I've taken a rough look over the machine you two ran into out in the Restful Sector."

Milea tapped the control panel, and a large holographic monitor rose up in the middle of the room, displaying the recovered footage alongside detailed scan data.

The wreckage of the small drone Grain had brought back, and the arm component of the navy-blue unknown machine Letaria had severed and recovered.

"So, what'd you find, Milea?"

At Grain's question, Milea's expression shifted into something faintly troubled.

"Well... I couldn't determine who it belongs to. Though I imagine you'd both already guessed as much."

"Figured as much."

Grain hadn't been expecting much either, and nodded flatly.

"Most of the frame and internal circuitry is repurposed off-the-shelf parts, but there are a few proprietary-spec components mixed in. That said, any traceable manufacturing numbers or unique serials have been cleanly scraped off -- unidentifiable. Though... you could just as easily call it a custom build, skillfully assembled from existing parts."

Milea switched the display, and the slender navy-blue Makina Arden's camera had captured appeared as a three-dimensional projection. A distinctive single-eye sensor and a tightly compressed, slim frame gave it an eerie, unusual silhouette.

"...Could it have any connection to those people from Escado we faced before?"

Letaria named the company responsible for creating the demon god Restful. But Milea gave a light shake of her head, dismissing the idea.

"The machines from that earlier drone incident were unmistakably old-era hardware... but this one isn't that kind of relic. You could call it a machine designed with genuinely modern technology."

"I see... And yet, for all that it's meant to be a newer machine, it hardly had much in the way of weaponry. If anything, I did not even sense any real intent to fight us. It makes no sense to me at all."

Letaria tilted her head, puzzled.

At her pure, straightforward question, Grain and Milea exchanged a glance and couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle.

"Wh-what is it, why are you two suddenly laughing!?"

As Letaria frowned in confusion, Grain reined in his laughter and spoke up.

"No, sorry, sorry. But you're exactly right, Letaria. Those things never had any intention of fighting us to begin with."

A large question mark all but visibly floated over Letaria's head at Grain's words.

"The small units were only armed with solid blades. And that slim Makina only ever fired that muffled little pea-shooter of a weapon. Not a single photon-energy beam weapon, nothing you'd really call proper firepower -- did it have any of that at all?"

"On top of that, there's the 'optical camouflage,' too."

Milea added.

"Yes, that -- concealment magic... no, wait, op-tical ca-mou-flage. Sneaking about in hiding, -- ah."

Letaria trailed off right there, struck by a sudden realization.

"That's the shape of it. They were spies from some outside faction, out there investigating the Restful Sector. They couldn't afford to trip the corps' or the Bureau's heat sensors and radar. So they threw up optical camouflage and stripped out any powerful weaponry that would give off heat or energy signatures -- infiltrating in what amounted to a near-unarmed stealth configuration."

"...So that is what it was! That is why it never came at my Arden head-on, and simply ran for its life the instant it could!"

With the mystery resolved and a look of satisfaction on her face, Letaria took a sip of the herbal tea Milea had poured for her.

"Though, even had that impudent lot chosen to fight me in earnest, they would still have been no match for me!"

Letaria flashed her usual haughty, proud smile, and Milea returned it with a smile of her own.

"If they were willing to take on that much risk just to investigate the place, you'd think they'd already know there's nothing of note left there... which might just mean 'Restful' itself is something other factions can't help being curious about too."

"Escado's legacy, huh. Never was anything good to come out of it. ...Well, Arden might be the one exception."

Grain's words drew a nod of agreement from Milea.

"Honestly, what I was most looking forward to today was sitting down and thoroughly analyzing the combat data from Arden, Riese, and Rasta all together... and instead I end up having to work through some illegal trespasser's hardware first. What a nuisance."

Milea shrugged with a wry, tired smile, then turned her gaze to Letaria.

"But still, Letaria. Thanks to you, we were able to catch onto the spies' presence far sooner than we otherwise would have. That's a genuinely major achievement. Thank you."

"I'll add my thanks too, my lady. Between that and the raiders, you had yourself quite the day."

At the two of them thanking her, Letaria's eyes widened for a moment.

"W-Well! A trifle like this is nothing at all, once I'm involved! A matter this small is hardly worth mentioning! Ohohohoho!"

Letaria let her triumphant laughter ring out, but both her cheeks had already flushed a telltale shade of red, betraying just how much the praise pleased her.